CHINA

Wall Street was set for a slightly higher open on Friday following encouraging data out of China and as a two-year high in the S&P 500 had investors betting on a year-end rally.

China's central bank on Friday said it was raising lenders' required reserves by 50 basis points, effective Dec 20, its sixth increase this year.

One of China's largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States next year, the first in a rush of Chinese Facebook clones looking to list.

One of China's largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States in the first half of next year, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

World stocks edged higher on Friday as investors grew more confident about the prospect for economic recovery following robust U.S. and Chinese data while Treasuries stabilized after a sell-off earlier this week.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rise 0.1 to 0.3 percent, pointing to a firmer start on Wall Street on Friday.

Chinese imports and exports jumped in November, bank lending topped forecasts and property investment powered ahead, a series of numbers that could clear the way for the central bank to raise interest rates as soon as this weekend.

Japanese stocks slipped from a seven-month high on Friday on profit taking, though were poised to outperform the rest of Asia this week, while U.S. Treasuries were steady on the view yields had risen too high, too quickly.

China's imports and exports were much stronger than expected in November, robust numbers that could clear the way for the central bank to raise interest rates as soon as this weekend.

Why did China avoid a steep recession and bounced back relatively quickly? The answer is its massive fiscal stimulus, according to Richard Koo.

China chose to make an example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo by jailing him for 11 years last year during a wider crackdown on dissidents, Spain's El Pais newspaper said on Thursday, citing U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

New shares of Chinese online video broadcasting company Youku (NYSE:YOKU) are selling like it's 1999.

Chinese banks are going public. But why are these banks raising money, and are they good investments?

Foreign central banks' overall holdings of marketable securities at the Federal Reserve fell in the latest week, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday.

German pharmaceuticals and chemical giant Bayer AG said it plans to invest 1-billion euros ($1.3-billion) in China in efforts to more than double sales in the country by 2015, as part of the company’s greater push into the Asia-Pacific region.

Having just touched an all-time high in price, demand for copper is expected to be very strong in the coming years, driven primarily by China’s insatiable hunger for commodities of all kinds to support its relentless program of mass urbanization.

IBTimes speaks to Siemens CEO Peter Löscher about the future of renewable energy, the megatrends affecting it, and how his company is positioning itself in this industry.

China attacked the U.S. congressional resolution on convicted Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, and urged U.S. policymakers to change arrogant and rude attitude. The country's foreign ministry maintained that Liu, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize, was not arrested over his calls for democracy, but for the reason that he tried to destabilize the state. Meanwhile, the Nobel committee announced that as many as 18 countries have joined China in the boycott of the Oslo event.

China on Thursday expressed its support for Russia’s bid to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

For the first time, a private company has successfully launched a spacecraft to orbit and returned it to Earth.

Standard Chartered <2888.HK> said costs are rising quickly as it fights to hire and retain staff in its hot Asian markets, taking the gloss off record income and profits.